The inspirational leader Rev. William Barber 11 is stepping down from his post as chair of the North Carolina NAACP to launch a national movement.
http://nypost.com/2017/05/11/naacp-leader-who-led-north-carolina-protest-movement-to-step-down/
His strong voice for moral strength, equal rights, dignity, courage in the face of adversity, and love is needed more than ever today.
Bret Wooten, a businessman in a small town in Texas, sent this letter to newspaper in the state. He asks whether we really care about our future if we neglect our most important investment: Our children. He previously posted his reaction to visiting his wife’s classroom.
Are you concerned about the future of this country?
Me too, but not in the way most people seem to be. We as a nation are willing to invest countless dollars in our military, transportation and communication infrastructure. Yet, we have faltered when it comes to investing in the most important of all of our infrastructures, our intellectual infrastructure.
If we are not producing the best and brightest other nations will. China alone produces 5 times the number of engineers the US does, year after year. The sheer weight of those numbers almost guarantees we will be out innovated, a prospect I shudder to think about. This is happening as our political leadership plays ineffective games, wasting countless dollars and time on issues that will not make us any stronger or better as a nation.
The public education system is the most effective program we have for pulling people out of poverty and is a cornerstone to the US rising to a world power in less than a century.
States, including Texas, base their education system on a test costing less than fifteen dollars. That is not only terrifying but ridiculous!
That is why I am asking our State and federally elected officials to take the same standardized test as our kids and make the results public. Or, put forth real measures that will allow for us to maintain our place in the world. I sent them an open letter stating just that supported by a movement I am calling Standarizedkids.com.
Here we go with the Great Money Heist in Florida.
HB7069 passed both houses of the legislature and will go to Governor Rick Scott for his signature.
In two posts, Sue M. Legg of the League of Women Voters analyzes the devastating impact of this budget bill for public schools. She hopes that Governor Scott will veto the bill. As she explains, money is being shifted to charter organizations and taken away from traditional public schools. Ten percent of the students in the state are enrolled in charter schools, but the needs of the ninety percent are ignored. The bill reduces base student funding, so that it is lower than it was a decade ago.
She writes:
The provisions to require local districts to share capital outlay with charter schools is untenable. It will cost districts already struggling with aging facilities, millions of dollars. The Schools of Hope proposal allocates $140 million for charter school takeovers of low performing public schools.
Creating charter systems that control groups of charters surely must stress the Florida constitutional requirement for a ‘uniform system of high quality schools’. These systems become their own local education agencies. This is a legal term that is now allocated to elected school boards. The systems would be able to receive funding directly with no oversight from districts.
The shift in the allocation of Title I funds for low income students also is adversely affected by the bill. Low performing schools would get the bulk of the money which then would go with Schools of Hope. The implications are far reaching if money is spread too thinly to support extra reading, tutoring and other services many children need.
Bianca Tanis teaches a combined kindergarten-first grade special education class in the Hudson Valley in New York. She is on the board of New York State Allies for Public Education, the group leading the campaign against high-stakes testing and privatization in the state.
She writes:
I had the opportunity to spend the day visiting a public Montessori school in Kingston yesterday. I have been considering this approach in my classroom and was able to tour the school along with my principal and one of our ENL teachers. I have not been this inspired in a long time.
Kingston is considered a small city school district and George Washington Elementary School is one of seven elementary schools in the Kingston City School district. Over 80% of the students receive free and reduced lunch, 17% are English Language Learners, and 26% are students with disabilities. When the principal first took over the school, they had 2,500 discipline referrals per year. They are not down to a handful and attendance has gone up exponentially. The lobby has couches for parents sit in and the principal’s dog roams the halls and often comforts anxious or upset students. The tables in the cafeteria have flowers on them and there is a library in the corner. The walls are covered with photographs of the students laughing and playing and student artwork. They are swapping out bench-style tables and replaced them with round,family style tables so that the students can converse with each other.
In every classroom students were engaged, working purposefully on self-selected tasks that are based on NYS curriculum. In the upper elementary classrooms each student has an individual work plan for their “independent period” of what tasks they must complete but within that period, they are free to work at their own pace and in the order they choose. During this independent period, teachers pull small groups or 3 to 4 students for lessons. Many of the classes are multi-age and students complete whole class science and social studies projects together. We saw older students helping younger students and children taking ownership over their learning. The teachers seemed relaxed, enthusiastic and HAPPY.
In the combined Pre-K-Kindergarten rooms the classes were very large, but you would never know it. The students were independently engaged in “tasks” and when they needed to speak with the teacher who was talking to me, the kids waited patiently and calmly, asking each other for help and then solving the issue themselves and walking away. If you work with 4 and 5 year olds, you know how amazing this is. The noise level was a productive hum…not silence, but not the cacophony you would expect from almost thirty 4 and 5 year olds. The children were independently drawing, making words with letter tiles, working on fine motor skills, counting beads, and pouring beans back and forth between two jars, etc.
There are about 320 students. The school has several inclusion classes, two self-contained special education classes and a dual language program. This a school that welcomes ALL children and provides them with a truly child-centered education. Their discipline policy is best described as a restorative justice model that does not focus on rewards, incentives, or punishments, believing that intrinsic motivation works. It was AMAZING.
These schools exists and are proof of what is possible when we look beyond test scores and look at what really matters. I just wanted to share because I think we can all use some good news 🙂
Blogger Luvvie Ajayi salutes Bethune-Cookman’s graduates for standing up against Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, a woman with zero understanding of their lives or the life of Mary McLeod Bethune.
She writes, “Thank You for Telling Betsy DeVos ‘Nah.'”
She writes:
“Y’all are the real MVPs. Really and truly. I am applauding you with the fervor I’d use during praise and worship right now. You know the kind of clapping that’s heavy-handed, and leaves your palms red and burning? The one your Grandma can keep going for 30 good minutes, and you wonder if she had an Apple Watch, how many steps it’d give her for that? That praise clap. You deserve the props, because today, you showed courage. You showed integrity. And you showed that you are more principled than the administration of people who are the ones supposed to show you what all those things are.
“Before I can truly thank you, I need to apologize to you on behalf of people with sense, and people who saw what you’d have to be in presence with and scratched our heads. You were not supposed to be placed in the position to have to defy your school president and administration. You were not supposed to be asked to watch an idiot who would fail the curriculum you had to take, and applaud her. You were not supposed to have to cheer on the woman who is about to flush our kids’ futures down the river. NO YOU WERE NOT. But your GOOFASS administration decided that it was a good idea to have Betsy DeVos, in all her ignoramus glory, on your stage. The woman who always looks like in quiet moments, slow jazz plays in her head. The lady who probably still says “colored people” when she’s at High Tea with her girls, the other Miss Annes. It defied all logic but it must have been led by stupidity and greed.”
The rest of her post is very funny and very serious.
She goes on to say:
“Because in these acts of defiance, you showed that you are more brave than the rubber-backed people who run your school and placed a stamp of approval on one of Cheeto Satan’s collaborators.”
And quotes Mary McLeod Bethune:
“If we accept and acquiesce in the face of discrimination, we accept the responsibility ourselves. We should, therefore, protest openly everything … that smacks of discrimination or slander.” – Mary McLeod Bethune
Rightwing corporate reformers like to go on and on about parental choice. Choice. Choice. Choice. The one choice they will not tolerate is parents who want their children to refuse the state tests. No choice! Governor Nathan Deal of Georgia vetoed a bill that would make it easier to parents to opt their children out of state standardized tests. He also blocked the possibility of students taking the tests using paper and pencil, instead of a computer. Deal was immediately hailed by Jeb Bush, who pushes computerization and digitization whenever possible. Jeb is a big support of school choice if it means vouchers and charters. He opposes parents’ right to opt out of testing. He is also a major supporter of computer-based instruction and computer-based assessment. His “Foundation for Educational Excellence” is largely funded by the software corporations that profit from standardized testing and data mining online. It has long been a goal of the corporate reform industry to use tests to “prove” that public schools are failing, that there is an “achievement gap,” and that parents should pull their children out of public schools and send them to charter schools or demand vouchers. Once that happens, the test scores don’t count anymore, because neither charters nor vouchers raise test scores or close achievement gaps. It is all a massive hoax to promote privatization.
This article appeared in Politico Pro. I am not a s
By Aubree Eliza Weaver
05/09/2017 01:52 PM EDT
Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal today vetoed a bill that would have made it easier for students to opt out of taking standardized tests.
House Bill 425 included provisions discouraging disciplinary action against those students who do not participate in federal, state or locally mandated standardized assessments. Additionally, it would have allowed students to complete the exams using paper and pencil, instead of a computer.
“First, as I stated in my veto of SB 133 last year, local school districts currently have the flexibility to determine opt-out procedures for students who cannot, or choose not to, take these statewide assessments and I see no need to impose an addition layer of state-level procedures for these students,” Deal said in a statement.
He also said that reverting to paper-and-pencil exams would make it harder for the state to return test data to districts quickly and goes against the state’s priority of reducing opportunities for students to cheat.
Deal’s decision was lauded by the Foundation for Excellence in Education, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
“The proposal would have harmed students and teachers by denying access to measurements that track progress on standardized assessments,” the advocacy group, founded by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, said in a statement. “Maintaining a transparent and accountable measurement systems is critical to ensuring students are on track to succeed in college and beyond — and indicates how successful schools are in preparing students for the future.”
To view online:
https://www.politicopro.com/education/whiteboard/2017/05/georgia-governor-vetoes-opt-out-measure-087474
This article appeared in Politico Pro. I am not a subscriber because it costs $3,500 a year, the last time I checked. Too rich for my taste.
The value-added assessment model that was forced on states by Arne Duncan’s Race to the Top is starting to fall apart, in the courts and in the experience of every state compelled to use it.
In this post, evaluation expert Audrey Amrein-Beardsley explains the top ten reasons why large scale, standardized tests should not be used to evaluate teachers.
She faced off against the rightwing National Council on Teacher Quality, which has consistently supported VAM and high-stakes testing. It is funded by, among others, the Gates Foundation.
Alan Singer writes that the real test of the state’s new standards will happen in the classroom. The proof of the pudding, he writes, is in the eating, not in what is said or written about it.
He warns that the whole process may be tainted if the current testing regime remains in place. And he worries that the state aims to quash the opt out movement, which is the only public voice and which compelled the state to make these revisions.
Newsday offers an amusing reflection on the change in the name of the Common Core state standards, which became toxic and set off the powerful opt out movement across the state, and especially on Long Island (which Newsday serves). In the last round of state testing, 50% of the eligible students on Long Island opted out of the English Language Arts state test, and 54% on Long Island opted out of the just concluded math tests.
Some teachers question in what way they “bought in,” as suggested below. Many are so familiar with the PR tactics of the State Education Department that they see this as yet another exercise in illusion.
From Newsday:
Pointing Out
Puzzle us this
Here’s a short quiz to start your week: The big news today is NGELAMLS.
What is it?
a) A newly diagnosed tropical disease that has alarmed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
b) A pharmaceutical breakthrough for melting body fat. Ask your doctor about NGELAMLS!
c) An obscure tribe living on the Ilha de Queimada Grande off the coast of Brazil.
d) A new name for the Common Core learning standards in New York.
The correct response is d. That tangle of letters stands for the Next Generation English Language Arts and Mathematics Learning Standards. State education officials have rechecked the standards, as well as the tests they first rolled out in the 2012-13 school year, this time with buy-in from teachers.
For all the controversy, the changes are small. But the messaging is big. By rebranding, the Education Department hopes to start fresh and reduce opt-outs from the tests.
Long Island, the national opt-out epicenter, had nearly 54 percent of eligible students sit out math exams last week. Will NGELAMLS change that?
Anne Michaud
In response to years of protests against the Common Core standards, the State Education Department has tweaked them, massaged them, tickled them, and given them a new name.
The New York state standards are now “the Next Generation English Language Arts and Mathematics Learning Standards.” Got that?
The revamped standards makes hundreds of changes to the state’s version of the Common Core, a set of educational benchmarks meant to get students ready for colleges and careers.
The “anchor standards” of the Common Core — which broadly lay out what’s expected of students — remain largely intact, though some were consolidated or clarified. The 34 English language arts anchors, for example, were whittled down to 28.
New York will become the latest state to put their own name on the standards, joining Florida and several others trying to assuage parental concerns and anger over the rollout of the Common Core.
Is it a cosmetic change or not?
Is it rebranding or not?
Is it real or is it Memorex?
We will hear more about this as the standards are introduced into classrooms.
You can be sure that the parents who opted their children out of state tests for the past few years, in rebellion against the Common Core standards and tests, will not be fooled. Nor will New York State Alliance of Parents and Educators, the group that has coordinated the opt-out movement, which has led about 20% of students across the state to refuse the tests year after year.
Diane Ravitch's blog 